


What Was Given

by Saffooooooo



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Asexual Character, F/M, Internalized Acephobia, M/M, Other, POV Alternating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-24 20:00:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21343906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saffooooooo/pseuds/Saffooooooo
Summary: The plan was that Andrew and Neil would have the house to themselves over Christmas break; with Nicky having flown to Germany to visit Erik and Aaron being invited to spend the holidays with Katelyn's family.Then the plan changed when Aaron came home as normal, only much more stressed out and  refusing to talk about what exactly happened.Edit 7/04/20: So, I've decided I want to change the direction is going in, so I think I'll focus on the boys as adults! I'm sorry  if you'd want a continuation of smol!Aaron, I just can't write Andrew and Neil as caretakers....
Relationships: Katelyn/Aaron Minyard, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Nicky Hemmick & Aaron Minyard, Nicky Hemmick/Erik Klose
Comments: 11
Kudos: 106





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I would like to say a few words before we begin.  
This fic came about because I was scrolling through Ao3 and realised that there wasn't nearly enough Twinyard bonding and especially not enough of Aaron-centric fics.  
Also, as you may be able to tell, I am not from the USA and I basically know nothing about anything within the culture.  
This means any mistakes are my own, and if I get anything wrong please tell me!  
I'm sorry if the characters are ooc, too!  
Edit: I spelled Erik's name wrong....

Andrew had his head flat against the counter-top, idly watching Neil methodically stir milk into two mugs of hot chocolate powder. He heard Neil count out the spoonfuls of sugar in careful Mandarin, probably not even realising he was doing it.  
The mug was placed deliberately in front of him and the chair across from his was scraped back from the table as Neil settled into it.  
"Five sugars, very chocolatey. " He quipped in his best barista voice.  
In the comfortable silence that ensued there was a jangle of keys at the front door and Aaron entered the house, back from his Saturday classes, his laptop and all of of his pre-med notes in tow. He seemed even more surly than usual. Aaron passed the kitchen and barely looked at them when he offered them a perfunctory "Afternoon."  
Andrew lifted his head from the table to appraise his twin.  
"Thought you were at Katelyn's place for the holiday."  
Aaron didn't even check his stride. Maybe he was taking lessons from Nicky, affecting an air of nonchalance. He couldn't possibly be growing a spine after all these years.  
"Change of plans. Sorry, I guess it means you won't be able to get at it as loudly as you would've liked." That last comment was punctuated by a nose-wrinkle of disgust.  
Neil took a sip of his drink, looking up at the brothers with guileless blue eyes.  
"Do you want to explain what you mean by that?" He asked Aaron, leaning a little as if he would dearly like to lunge and throttle him.  
Aaron heaved an exasperated sigh and placed his papers and laptop gently onto the table. He straightened up so he was at the peak of his five foot height.  
"I am no longer staying at Katelyn's house for the holidays. Therefore I will be staying here, at my house." He knew exactly which bit Neil took offence to, and neatly avoided any mention of it.  
With that, he retrieved his work and padded upstairs to his bedroom.  
When he was gone, Neil huffed an unamused laugh and picked his mug up again to take another sip, but the homely atmosphere had dissipated.  
"Something is troubling him." Andrew stated. "He's angrier than usual."  
*  
Aaron resisted the urge to dump his notes on the floor and just slide into bed like he very much would like to. Instead, he painstakingly organised the sheathes of paper into their relevant subject folders at his desk. He'd revise them later, after a nap.  
It said something about the state of his day, the fact that he fell asleep only a few minutes after with his head cushioned on his textbooks.

He awoke three hours later, hair a mess and drool soaking into the shiny pages of his (very expensive) textbook.  
Aaron had the distinct impression that it was evening now and no-one was going to do anything about food, so he set about dunking his head in the bathroom sink to wake himself up. He'd have to make dinner, already taking a mental stock of the ingredients he would need to make a half-decent pasta carbanara as he walked down the stairs.  
Leaving the pan to fill under the open tap, he opened the package of pasta he had retrieved and swiped the salt off the spice rack.  
Within half an hour, Aaron had prepared a decent meal for four people and had set the table. One fork, plate and glass, only for himself.  
Just as he taken the first bite dinner Andrew and Neil came back from wherever they had gone, Neil lagging behind with a huge cardboard box cradled in his arms. He placed it reverently next to the table and reached into it to ease two kittens out onto the floor.  
Aaron watched as they cautiously began to explore their surroundings, feeling his mood lighten slightly. He sensed Andrew glance up at him so he took another bite of pasta to pretend he had no interest in their newly acquired pets.  
"How long do you think it'll take for the rest of the Team to bet on names for them?" Neil whispered, eyes soft with undisguised awe as he gazed at the adorable things.  
Aaron had never seen Neil without all of the accompanying snarkiness before. In a way it made him easier to hate. This asshole with a heart had vulnerabilities, more of a man than the machine that sicced the mob on them and stole his brother. It made him a lot more like Aaron himself. He couldn't deal with it.  
"An hour." Andrew replied.  
Aaron didn't like the route his thoughts were taking, so he swallowed a mouthful of food and decided to speak.  
"Made Pasta." He pointed to the fridge. "Eat. Or don't."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One of them is told what happened. Hint: It's not Neil or Andrew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter contains discussion of Asexuality and internalised Acephobia mentioned in the tags.  
Read at your discretion, and if I have misrepresented the sexuality or have written about it in a way that offends, please tell me so I can edit it as soon as possible.

Aaron stretched out on the sofa, massaging a crick out of his neck. He should've learned his lesson from before; playing on the PS4 after studying for hours on end was a very bad idea. His eyes were aching like he had forgotten to take his contacts out before bed and he was pretty sure he looked like shit for the third time that day. 

He was hungry again despite eating that pasta he had made, but really couldn't be bothered to get up. Couldn't be bothered to do anything.

A few minutes ago Andrew had seen his sallow appearance and red eyes and had almost ripped his sleeves apart to check for new track marks. 

"Ha'nt relapsed..." Aaron mumbled, rubbing a hand over his face. "Jus' tired." More than tired. Bone-exhausted. Fatigued. 

His brother nodded and forcefully pried the controller out of Aaron's hand. 

"Bed." Andrew ordered. 

"Neil?" Aaron asked. 

"Kittens." Andrew replied. He pulled Aaron off the sofa. "Come on." 

Aaron was dragged into the spare bedroom, now dubbed as the spare/cat room, where Neil sat trailing a piece of string across the floor for the Kittens to pounce at. 

"Andrew, " He began, without turning around. "Look at what I taught them..." 

Neil slowly lifted the string into the the air, and the tortoise-shell kitten eyed it with focussed distaste. Suddenly, it reared onto its hind legs to paw at the string, then lost interest and flopped back down. 

"The way the cat stared at the string reminded me of how Aaron looks at you."

Aaron bristled, already regretting following Andrew if he was just going to take verbal jabs at him with Neil. He really felt like the third wheel here. 

"What, with less than admiration and awe than upperclassmen and you look at him with?" He snapped. "I came here for the cats. Pasta's still in the fridge."

In typical Aaron Minyard fashion, he walked out of the room and away from his communicating issues. 

Why had Andrew brought him there if he was just going to make assumptions about how he perceived Neil? Yes, Aaron didn't like Neil but it wasn't because he was with Andrew. 

It was everything else, all the little things; Andrew seemed more at ease with him. People liked him. He could stand up for himself and not get shot down. He knew how to regulate his words and rarely offended anyone he didn't want to. Most of all, Aaron felt, Neil was completely at ease with himself. 

For the second time that Saturday he locked himself in his room and wished sleep could wipe his worries away. 

Instead, he sat on his bed and thought about what he done wrong to lose Katelyn. 

No, that wasn't the right way of putting it. Putting it that way made it seem like Katelyn had been the one growing apart from him, and not vice-versa. 

Thinking about it would kill him, but Aaron had shoved things into the back of his closet for so long he couldn't remember how to rise above his problems. So maybe the best way to solve it was not to think but to talk. Not to Andrew's shrink, but someone he was familiar with and would… 

He didn't realise he had dialled Nicky's number until his cousin had picked up. 

"Aaron? Y'know you're gonna get a massive bill for calling internationally?" 

He heard sheets rumple on the other end of the line, then soft German he could tell was Klose. He didn't know if he wanted an audience more than Nicky for this. 

"Don't care. Get somewhere private. I wanna talk." 

Nicky yawned. "Alright, I'm going. Bye Eric!" This last bit was said away from the phone, and filled with so much love Aaron felt a toothache coming on. 

"You'll literally get back into bed with him in half an hour. Jeez."

"Yeah, but still! Ah, hold on, getting onto balcony…" He heard a door slide open and closed, then background noise fade to the chirping of crickets. "I'm done! What's up?" 

Aaron leaned back against the headboard and sighed. 

"I was supposed to be going to Katelyn's over Christmas, but I uh- I ended it today." 

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone, which relaxed Aaron in strange way. He was expecting questions and shrieks. Maybe he didn't know Nicky as well as he thought? 

"Oh Aaron. She was so good for you…. Andrew's gonna get hell when I get back. Imma return his Christmas presents." 

Aaron laughed a little, shaking his head. 

" 'S not his fault really. If it was I'd rip him a new one." 

".... That's not the reason why you called though, is it?" 

There. Nicky got to the matter fast. 

"No. It isn't. But you needed to know about Katelyn to understand. So- Well…" He took a deep breath. "Lemme tell you." 

Friday night had come round again, and Andrew was at his most hype. Aaron knew this because he had to sit in between Kevin and his brother in the back, with Nicky driving and the new guy (Lloyd? Boyd?) shotgunning. Andrew was completely loving it, by which Aaron meant he honestly thought he was going to die before they got to Sweetie's. 

Every time the car jolted or even swerved slightly Aaron came up against Andrew's side, and every time (every time) Andrew would flick his knife out and give Aaron the smile that scared the shit out of him. 

"Ironic, isn't it, knowing you'll die on the road? Just like your precious Mommy."

Aaron never said anything back, never really could get his words out in any sort of stressful situation, and Andrew would turn to stare out of the window again. 

Sweetie's was definitely the highlight of the night, if only because Aaron could sink into the haze of cracker dust and forget there was anything in the world but colours. Boyd was suitably intimidated by them all, which obviously meant that none of them would get any of his friendliness after Eden's Twilight. 

Cahya was at the door and so that meant fistbump. When he first picked up shifts at the bar he had developed a way to communicate with a series of hand-taps if he didn't feel like talking. This one said 'Hey, man. The new boy here might want help later on. Stay with him when that happens?' Cahya nodded at him before ushering them in. 

Andrew got the drinks, Kevin hit them hard, Boyd sat around awkwardly, Nicky left for the dance floor and so did he. 

Some time during the night a girl had attached herself to him. Aaron didn't mind; she had fathomless dark eyes and the longest lashes he had ever seen that weren't fake. She danced excellently too. 

They ended up getting a table to talk. She was majoring in Psychology, wanted to be a counsellor. He was pre-med, here on a sporting scholarship. She wanted to know how he coped with everything. Once upon time, she said, she'd wanted to become a Doctor. The stress they told her that was involved made her change her mind. 

Her friends came over then. They were nice. Over-achievers all, Aaron could tell. 

Later, against the back wall, she told him she liked his freckles. He told her he adored her eyes. They kissed, very chaste. It was going well, until she shyly asked for more. 

"It was like I woke up from a dream. I couldn't speak, though damn I tried to. She didn't force me or anything, just backed up a step and waited for my answer. All I could think was that I should've wanted it. She was beautiful, and really interesting. Bookish, almost obsessively so. She told me straight up she was Bi, and that she wouldn't take any 'guys are better' shit. Maybe I was in love with her, but the idea of sex made me really uncomfortable. I didn't know why. I still don't know why. I just know it's not fucking normal and I hate because it ruins every relationship I could have."

Aaron could tell Nicky was crying. 

It was the kind of sobs that hurt your lungs to shed, like your body wanted never to part with them. It was curling in on yourself and lamenting the life you could never live, because this was it and there was no changing it and knowing in your heart that it would be all or nothing. Aaron knew because he had sobbed the very same. 

"Nicky. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. It was stupid to dump all of this on you and I hope you'll forgive me. I just wanted to tell you because of all the things I've said to you before. It's not because you're gay. It's me. I came to you, because I couldn't … "

*

"...go to Andrew. "

To hell with Aaron's herbal tea. Andrew thought, and dropped the mug. 

If he was anyone else, he would've cared that it had smashed.


End file.
